The Canberra Liberals have failed to declare more than $80,000 in gifts and donations within 30 days under the ACT's financial disclosure laws for political parties.
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The Liberal Party's ACT division has lodged a series of late returns with the ACT electoral commission, some of which should have been reported up to a year ago.
The Legislative Assembly passed laws last year requiring political parties to report donations and gifts of $1000 or more to the commission within 30 days of receiving them and within seven days during an election campaign.
Parties receive an administrative allowance of about $5000 per MLA each quarter to help them comply with the new system. Since July last year, the Liberals have received close to $190,000 in taxpayer-funded payments, while ACT Labor has received about $195,000 and the ACT Greens $43,000.
The Liberals did not explain on Monday why the party had failed to declare the donations on time but a spokesman said the division was working ''constructively with Elections ACT'' to update its returns.
Financial disclosure returns for 2012-13 show the party reported close to $43,000 in donations and gifts last month that it failed to declare during the financial year.
Nearly $40,000 of the late returns was declared to the commission last Tuesday.
Fairfax Media reported in September that there was a $73,000 discrepancy between donations the party had declared in its 2012-13 annual return and those it had reported to the electoral commission throughout that financial year.
At the time, the commission said it was investigating the inconsistencies and demanded clarification from the Liberal Party.
A separate table on the Elections ACT website shows the Liberals also reported $38,665 in gifts and donations for 2013-14 to the commission last Tuesday.
According to the figures, the party has failed to report any donation within 30 days this financial year.
The same tables show ACT Labor has reported about $4000 in amended 2012-13 donations since lodging its annual return, while its published donations for 2013-14 so far were declared on time, according to the commission.
The ACT Greens have so far declared one donation in 2013-14 outside of the 30-day limit, but a party spokeswoman said this was an administrative error that would be corrected.
The electoral commission took a lenient approach to parties failing to comply with the new laws in 2012-13 as each party was adjusting to the new system.
Penalties can apply for parties who fail to declare gifts and donations on time, but acting electoral commissioner Andrew Moyes said the commission opted for an ''educational'' approach during the laws' first year.
However, Mr Moyes said: ''We can't keep doing that.''
He said the commission would ''have to consider what our next steps will be''.
A Liberal Party spokesman said on Monday ''there have been continuous conversations between the party and Elections ACT over the definition of some of the terms'' under the disclosure laws.
''As soon as clarification was given, returns were submitted in accordance with that advice,'' the spokesman said.
''We continue to work constructively with Elections ACT.''